1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to on-line transactions and more particularly to the manner of payment utilized in on-line transactions.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Networks, such as the Internet and World Wide Web (hereafter “e-commerce”), have become increasingly popular for all types of consumer transactions, such as purchase of various products and services. The primary reasons why e-commerce transactions have become so popular are due to the convenience that the consumer is able to access an unlimited amount of information and can purchase all types of products and services from a single location.
Some problems have been noted with e-commerce transactions due to security concerns. For example, most e-commerce transactions are carried out by having the consumer provide credit card information to a merchant. Potentially, the consumer credit card information can be obtained by hackers at the time the credit card information is transmitted from the consumer to the merchant. To counteract this problem, different security schemes have been implemented to protect the credit card information, such as various encryption techniques. These techniques, however, can still provide insufficient security to prevent improper access of a consumer's credit card information.
Accordingly, there is a need for creating a more secure mechanism to accommodate e-commerce transactions.